No Legal Aid for Ex-Finance Ministry Official With Islamic State Links
Jakarta. Indonesia's Finance Ministry said it will not provide legal advice to a former staff and his family who allegedly tried to enter Syria to join Islamic State last year.
The government has been prosecuting Indonesian citizens who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State as part of its crackdown on Islamic radicals in the country.
Nufransa Wira Sakti, head of the communication bureau at the Finance Ministry, said in a statement on Friday (27/01) the ministry will "uphold the presumption of innocence" and "respect the law enforcement process" carried out by the Indonesian Police.
"Since being discharged, none of [the ex-staff's] actions can be linked to the Finance Ministry as they are his own responsibility," Nufransa said.
The statement, however, confirmed that the former officer resigned from the ministry in February last year on his own accord to take care of an Islamic boarding school for orphans in Bogor, West Java. He was officially discharged from the ministry in August last year.
"Since then, he has remained out of contact," Nufransa said.
A separate statement from the Indonesian Police a day earlier said five Indonesians arrived at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali on Wednesday from Turkey.
The five Indonesians, a married couple and their three children, were deported by the Turkish government for allegedly planning to join IS.
"[They] were arrested by the Turkish military on Jan. 16 at 3.00 a.m. local time together with 20 other people," the statement said.
It was estimated that hundreds of Indonesians have joined Islamic State in the past two years, including the notorious Bahrun Naim, who masterminded several terror attacks in Indonesia last year.
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